aspern INTERNATIONAL Ideas for Change: an international view


© Schreinerkastler

A cooperation of Architekturzentrum (Az W) with Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG

Vienna is one of Europe’s fastest-growing cities. Meeting the housing needs of such a rapidly growing population represents one of the biggest challenges currently confronting urban politics, urban planners, and architects.

Around 1900 there was a similar population boom in Vienna. At that time the city was one of the centers of early Western modernism and a source of important tendencies, some of which have maintained their influence up to the present day. The Gründerzeit (mid- to late 19th century) produced the typology of the flexibly used urban block which has stood the test of time. We believe that an enormous potential for change toward a worthwhile future lies in establishing links to and reinterpreting these exceptional Viennese traditions.

Our contribution to the Vienna Biennale 2015 is an experiment that signals change in the direction of participation, giving people a voice and making the city more democratic. Working in cooperation with the Architekturzentrum Wien, Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG was holding an idea competition for a site in the Lakeside Park Quarter of aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside, which lies in the east of the urban area and is currently the city’s largest urban development site. Within the context of “Ideas for Change,” seven European architects have developed alternative approaches to the architecture of the city. The competition sought an architecture that is multifunctional and open to different kinds of uses, which on the one hand responds to social changes and on the other leaves enough room for the future to develop freely.

Before the jury convenes, the entries will be presented and discussed within the context of the Vienna Biennale 2015. The exhibition aspern INTERNATIONAL offers both the jury and the general public an opportunity to get to know the competition entries as well as other projects by the architects taking part in the competition. On 20 June 2015 each architecture practice will present the project it has submitted at a public symposium and respond to questions and comments from the jury, colleagues, and interested attendees. The contents of this discussion will then form the basis for the jury’s decision, which will be published in July 2015.

aspern INTERNATIONAL is intended to encourage a wide-ranging debate about the coherence of the city, in which the city building as a part of the urban fabric plays a central role. After all, a growing city is a heterogeneous city and—just like its architecture— needs a common language as a basis and starting point for individual statements.

Symposium: aspern INTERNATIONAL. Presentation of the Designs     
20 June 2015, 10 a.m.–5:15 p.m., Architekturzentrum Wien, Podium Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna

Exhibition dates aspern INTERNATIONAL
11 Jun – 24 Aug 2015, Architekturzentrum Wien
28 Aug – 4 Oct 2015, Technology centre aspern IQ

Curator
Dietmar Steiner, Director, Architekturzentrum Wien

The Project is supported by

   

Subsidy for the Az W provided by 

       

Patron of the Az W 



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Date
11.06. – 04.10.2015

Location
aspern IQ

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